September 13, 2016 | No Comments
The hacker persona Guccifer 2.0 has released a new trove of documents that allegedly detail the Democratic National Committee’s network infrastructure, as well as more information on the DNC’s finances and Democratic donors, Forbes reported.
The release came during a presentation Tuesday from a person speaking on behalf of the alleged hacker at a London cybersecurity conference that Forbes attended.
If authentic, the documents would represent the latest strike from the mysterious hacker persona that has already roiled the 2016 election with leaks of documents stolen from the DNC and the House Democrat’s campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Earlier document dumps include the internal communications that forced the resignation of former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz this summer and fueled allegations of party bias against Bernie Sanders.
Numerous security researchers suspect Guccifer 2.0 is a front for Russian intelligence services. Digital forensic investigations of the DNC and DCCC hacks have led cybersecurity firms to blame Moscow-backed hackers for both digital intrusions.
The Obama administration has yet to publicly blame the Kremlin, although officials reportedly have “high confidence” that Moscow was involved. Russian President Vladimir Putin flatly denies any involvement.
Tuesday’s release is the first data dump from Guccifer 2.0 since an Aug. 31 release of a cache of documents that included primers for Democratic candidates on hot-button issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement, the Islamic State and immigration. The leak outraged Black Lives Matters leaders.
Guccifer 2.0 initially burst into the spotlight by posting the DNC’s internal vulnerability file on nominee Hillary Clinton and personal data on the DNC’s donors. Later, the hacker released the personal email addresses and phone numbers of nearly all House Democrats and their staffers, causing chaos for members and their aides.
The latest file, containing more than 600 megabytes of documents, is the first Guccifer 2.0 release to not come from the hacker’s Tumblr account. It was given out via a link to the small group of security experts attending the London conference.
The file name included NGP VAN, a leading software firm used by Democrats, leading to speculation that the documents perhaps came from the data analytics firm.
Guccifer 2.0 had previously claimed that he was able to hack into the DNC through NGP VAN.
NGP VAN referred to a blog post from security firm ThreatConnect that concluded the DNC was not hacked through NGP VAN.